“I know what you Finns are like” – A stern warning about the night in Las Vegas

– It was already a damn good city at the end of the 1990s.

A former cult defender Sami Helenius, 49, remembers his years in Las Vegas very fondly. He was the city’s first ever Finnish professional hockey player.

Today, Las Vegas can be considered a real puck city, as the NHL club Golden Knights is very close to their first Stanley Cup. During its short history, the Golden Knights have created quite a buzz in the capital of gambling.

However, puck traditions in the city of sin have been around for a long time.

Farm series were played in Las Vegas for many years before the NHL arrived in 2017. In 1998-99, Helenius played for the Las Vegas Thunder in the IHL series, and at that time he rediscovered the joy of playing.

– Back then, Vegas was not necessarily a puck city yet. There were around 10,000 spectators at the weekend games and around 2,000 on weekdays.

The footsteps of Thunder, which operated in the years 1993–99, were followed four years later by the ECHL club Las Vegas Wranglers, where defenders from Finland had time to play Riku Varjamo and Jaakko Harikkala as well as the attacker Aki Seitsonen.

– There was always some kind of show. At that time, we were the biggest show in Vegas, even though there was Cirque du Soleil and everything else, Seitsonen describes.

The Wranglers folded in 2014, but the Golden Knights brought hockey back to town three years later. So far only Erik Haula has played for Finns in the Las Vegas NHL team.

Temptations

Helenius remembers from the Thunder years how visiting teams often did not do well under the lights of Vegas. The entertainment offer may have had a strong connection to this phenomenon.

– We probably won 80 percent of our home games, even though we were below average.

– The away teams came there the day before the match, so the playing condition was not necessarily the best possible. The trips to Vegas were an insurmountable obstacle, Helenius laughs.

Riennot sometimes backfired in the Thunder as well. This happened once to a striker promoted from a lower league level.

– It was bad for him. After the game there was no control.

– During the next morning’s training, you did notice that the guy was not completely free. We went to stretch, and then there was a long spat in the center circle, Helenius recalls.

The comic about that player was no longer seen in Las Vegas, as he was immediately sent back to the ECHL series after vomiting on the ice.

– Many guys didn’t have life control when the bars are open 24 hours a day, Helenius states.

The Finn’s own concentration in the midst of vices was helped by the fact that he had his own family on the trip.

– Thank God that my wife at the time came there. My older son was also born there.

A paradise of vices

Las Vegas is partying 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. The temptation to go out for entertainment has become expensive even for professional hockey players.

– Many times the guys came to practice with bad oxygen and wearing the same suit they had left the previous night’s game in. Isn’t there a saying that everything is possible in Vegas, Helenius smiles.

Aki Seitsonen, who played for the ECHL team Wranglers in 2006–08, received a word of warning from his head coach at the time From Glen Gulutzanwho had played in the 1997–98 season for Vaasan Sport in the I-division.

– He said: “I know what you Finns are like. You have to take it easy, Aki, every day is Saturday in Vegas.”

In Wranglers, it was made clear that players don’t go out for fun whenever they want.

– That’s what they say at home, don’t fool around in the world. We were really smart. Of course, some things have to stay there!

In the 2006–07 season, defender Jaakko Harikkala played as Seitsonen’s teammate, but he was only able to play in six games for the Wranglers due to a knee injury in the fall.

– I went to the camp of Omaha’s AHL team. It must have been the first ice practice, and the guy fell on my knee. After the camp, it was considered that all the lateral ligaments of the knee were severed.

Harikkala was operated on in Las Vegas, where he also stayed to rehabilitate his knee. After six games, he returned to the SM league for the rest of the season.

In the end, the offers and moods of Vegas were not a life-changing experience for Harikkala.

– I’m more of a country boy, so big lights weren’t the biggest thing for me.

– During a few of the team’s evening parties, I was hanging out at the casinos. Nightlife was not my thing, Harikkala states directly.

For Seitsose, the two seasons in Nevada were, on the other hand, an experience that left a strong positive memory.

– Great memories were left for the young guy from Riihimäki. After all, those lights and everything were in a great mood.

Crazy adventures

Wranglers, which operated until 2014, attracted wider attention, especially with its special exploits, which did not leave anyone cold.

Among other things, the club regularly organized a “midnight meeting”, i.e. a match that started in the wee hours. This way, for example, townspeople who worked in gambling could watch hockey after work.

– Once I played by myself in the middle of the night. The game started at two, and it was quite a slog. The children were wearing nightgowns watching the game, Seitsonen remembers.

– There were a lot of people even then and the atmosphere was great. As a hockey player, though, the rhythm got pretty messed up.

Harikkala also had memories of Wranglers’ unusual matches.

– It must have been the midnight game when I was there myself. Then there must have been some Hawaiian game where they played in Hawaiian shirts, Harikkala laughs.

– In all home games, the stands were full and the atmosphere was high. The mood did rise when there were the opening, halftime and aftershows.

Wranglers’ most famous prank is probably from March 2006, when it was a joke George W. Bush having served as vice president Dick Cheney’s with a hunting accident.

Cheney accidentally shot his hunting buddy with a shotgun Harry Whittington, who nevertheless survived. The Wranglers handed out orange vests emblazoned with the words “Don’t shoot, I’m human!”

– They do know how to make themes – after all, that’s what business is all about. It was great fun for the players as well, Harikkala remembers.

– With a game ticket, you could go to a pub for a free drink, for example. They tried everything, and they know how to do show business there, Seitsonen praises.

Another theme match that attracted attention was “K18-ilta”, where during the match event a lot of harsh adult humor was cultivated and naughty scenes from well-known movies were shown.

In its final years, the Wranglers also attempted to build a new home hall on the fifth floor of the Plaza Hotel, with a pool area connecting the hotel’s towers. However, the plan was found to be impossible to implement.

Not for big tables

Las Vegas is certainly first associated with casinos and gambling for most people. The stories tell of tourists who have traveled to Las Vegas with a travel budget of several tens or even hundreds of thousands of dollars.

– There are some pretty good players there. You didn’t really dare to go play blackjack if you didn’t know the rules. You don’t want to go to the big tables, Seitsonen reminds.

Harikkala says that he has visited the gambling center a few times to try his luck.

– I think I even missed a win from the slot machine. I think I played once or twice, and I would have missed $60 in winnings. But gambling wasn’t a big deal for me either.

Seitsonen’s casino experiences, on the other hand, lightened his own wallet.

– I turned 21 there, and then the boys took me to the casino. I played so much roulette that I had a hundred bucks left.

Helenius didn’t spend much time in casinos either, but in a financial sense, he sees a lot of good in Las Vegas.

– In Nevada, taxation is so low that there was even talk about whether one should buy a room there. However, I was that much Härmäläinen and all the guys in Finland, so that idea stuck.

On the other hand, Harikkala did not see that he could have settled in the city of sins for a longer period of time.

– Definitely not a place where I would take my family to live for a longer period of time. But it was a great experience when I was young myself. Many times I have thought that I should go and see old places.

Harikkala also points out that the entire metropolitan area of ​​more than two million inhabitants is not just a madhouse. The entertainment side is emphatically concentrated along the approximately seven kilometer long The Strip.

– That weekday there was not very fairy-tale like, since no one lives there on the Strip.

After their playing careers, Helenius and Harikkala have settled in Finland, but Seisonen has remained in North America.

Seitsonen, who lives with his family in the Canadian province of Saskatchewan, currently runs his own construction company, which does renovation work and builds single-family houses.

– The summers have been quite busy. It will already be six years since the last visit to Finland in the fall. Father and mother are probably already waiting!